Hogwarts: The Second Story
by Sofia Lynch
Summary: The story we hoped the Cursed Child would be. Lily, Albus, James, Rose, Hugo, and Scorpius band together to stop the newest threat to Hogwarts . . . and hopefully not die in the process.
1. Chapter One: Lily

After waiting far too many years, it was finally Lily Luna Potter's first day at Hogwarts. She had heard all about it, of course, from her two older brothers, James and Albus. But it simply wasn't the same. Most of what James told her she suspected to be false, anyway, which her parents' "well that _is _something James would say" faces all but confirmed. Lily may not have ever gone, but in her limited experience, she was pretty sure the Sorting had nothing to do with fending off fire-breathing dragons. And Albus-well, Albus was in Slytherin, and Lily had little intention of going there. So when he told her a bit about how the common room was in the dungeons, underneath the lake, and how they _were _going to win the Quidditch Cup now that he was Seeker, she was only half listening.

Now, oh how the turntables…

Things were changing. Last week, she had gone to Diagon Alley and gotten her school robes, and her wand (which she had tried out a couple times without managing to accomplish anything). Her cauldron and books were both hand-me-downs, as well as her broom, which she technically wasn't supposed to have, but the Potters had a history of making the Quidditch team as first years. (Harry didn't like the idea of her taking advantage of this exception, but McGonagal was half-ready to let her join the team already, so there wasn't much to be done about that.)

The Potters took a muggle car to King's Cross, stopping once at the Weasleys'. Originally, the car wasn't spacious enough for Harry, Ginny, James, Albus, Lily, Ron, Hermione, Rose, _and _Hugo, but after a few enlargement spells, everyone had space for themselves and all their supplies.

"Is everyone here?" Harry asked, glancing back at them. Many distracted "yes"s and "mmhmm"s came in reply, as well as a soft _hoot _from Albus's owl, Hedwig Jr. (he wasn't overly creative).

"Everyone's here," Hermione confirmed, after quickly, but precisely, counting heads. "Is Teddy Apparating?"

"Well, he's twenty-one, isn't he?" Ron reasoned.

"Oh, yes, that's right."

"We're going to be late!" Rose interrupted, even though they were leaving rather early.

"We're not," Ron said.

"We're going!" Harry said, pulling out of the driveway. And with that, they were off.

About twenty minutes later, they hopped out of the car, school supplies rattling along behind them, fast-walking purposefully towards Platform 9 ¾.

Lily was walking the fastest. "There it is!" She shouted, pointing at the brick wall. Lily saw Ron stifle a laugh behind her-a couple muggles seemed deeply confused at their excitement over a brick wall.

If anything else happened, Lily never knew. She bolted through the wall without batting an eye, emerging onto the hidden, famous platform. (Famous among wizards, that is. It's not like muggles ever read about it or something absurd like that). And there in front of her was the train, the Hogwarts Express, with is bright red color and wisps of steam floating from its engines. _Finally._ Lily stared at the train in awe, remembering all the amazing things her family had told her about Hogwarts. Like the time when Albus summed it up by saying, "Hogwarts is amazing." And then James added, "Yes."

Harry and Ginny appeared behind her, and Lily hugged them quickly. "You'll write, right, Mum?"

"Of course," Ginny replied.

That was all Lily needed to hear. "Okay, bye! I'll see you on break." With that, she ran off, following Rose's lead (who was still insisting they would be late). The inside of the train was something new, with all the compartments and the students. She went by the one with Albus and Scorpius, because she didn't want to doom herself to Slytherin, and a couple others with people she didn't know, to find an empty compartment. Her and Hugo filed in.

A couple other first-years trickled in after them before they shut the door. This included Olivia, a blonde muggle-born who couldn't understand what had happened to the WiFi, and Jason. Jason just sat there and stared at the wall.

"I wonder who the new Potions teacher is," Hugo wondered allowed. Slughorn had taught potions for a long time after the Battle of Hogwarts, but recently retired. As he told Harry, he was too old, and officially retired again.

"Yeah," Lily echoed.

"Hasn't your dad said anything? He's the Headmaster, after all, it _was _his choice."

Lily shrugged. "He didn't say anything to me, at least. Maybe it's a...like, a surprise."

"Oh. Maybe."

Rose walked by, already wearing her robes. "Remember to get ready," she reminded.

"I know," they replied in unison.

"And don't forget your things, Hugo, you _always _forget your things…"

"Why do you always say that?" Hugo protested, indignant. "It was _one time_…"

A couple minutes later, after the candy cart had gone by and Lily and Hugo and bought assorted sweets, Olivia said, "wait…" Lily almost jumped, because nobody had said anything for a long while. "You said...he said…" she waved a hand vaguely in Hugo's direction. "Your dad _can't _be the Headmaster. It's Harry Potter, isn't it?"

Lily almost rolled her eyes-this happened frequently, and all the Potters hated it. "Yeah, my dad is Harry Potter," Lily confirmed.

The past years, Hogwarts had been going through Headmasters faster than it had gone through Defense Against the Dark Arts professors. First Dumbledore died, then Snape died, and ever since, people seemed to be afraid to keep the job for too long. There had been many requests that Harry step up. For a while, he refused. He had been doing just fine as an Auror. But now, after twenty years of Auror-_ing_, he had relented. And, Lily could tell, he loved the idea of going back to Hogwarts. Being an Auror had been great, but Hogwarts was his home.

"_Really_?" Olivia droned.

"Really," Hugo confirmed.

"_No_."

"Yes."

"But...you don't look like him."

Now Lily _did _roll her eyes. "I've got a Mum, too," she said irritably. "And anyway, I have his eyes." She pointed to them, which were green, just like Harry's. "And I must _kind of _have his hair, because it never stays nice like my mum's does."

Olivia nodded slowly. "I can see it." It was obvious she couldn't see it.

Finally, the train began to stop, arriving at Hogwarts. All three of them pressed their faces against the window, trying to catch a glimpse of the famous castle. "That's _it_!" Lily said, pointing at a gray mass, barely visible in the fog. "There it is!"

"Where?" Olivia asked.

"Just there," Hugo said, pointing, but the fog had gotten thicker and it was now completely out of view. "Well, we'll see it eventually."

The Hogwarts Express pulled to a complete stop. Before it did, however, the compartment doors all swung open, and students poured out, all headed for the door. Lily spotted James going by, surrounded by a group of friends, who he was animatedly telling a story to. Lily grabbed her things and swung the door open, following the mass of people heading towards the doors. Albus and James had told her a bit about this-how the first years took boats inside over the lake, rather than carriages. James also said there was always one student left to swim, but Lily had learned a long time ago to listen to very little of what James said.

They had just made it off the train when Rose found them, leaving her friends for a second. "It's almost time for the Sorting," she noted excitedly.

Then they had to stop, because Hugo had stopped short and gone a shade paler.

"What?" Lily asked.

"_I forgot my things_," he half-whispered, mortified.

"I _told _you-well, nevermind, I _think _we have time," Rose muttered, dragging them back to the train. "We'll just have to hurry up to catch everyone else. It'll be fine."

Lily wasn't sure if she was talking to them or herself. They hopped back on the train quickly, bolting down the hall, searching each compartment for all the essential Hogwarts supplies. Hugo's wand, cauldron, books...everything but his robes and the half-eaten chocolate frog in his pocket. Lily kept glancing at the doors, worried they might close-that the train might start moving somewhere and take them with it. She didn't know what happened to the train when everyone got off, and she doubted Rose knew, either. It wasn't the kind of thing you found in _Hogwarts, A History_. (Which, ironically, they still could not find.)

"Oi, I found it, I found it!" Hugo called.

"Oh, good, now let's go," Rose said, motioning them over to the door.

Lily started following her out, then almost tripped. It wasn't because her foot had caught on something, or caught on _itself_ (which happens), but because the whole train lurched suddenly.

"_What was that_?" Hugo exclaimed, running with his suitcase clattering noisily behind him.

The Hogwarts Express was not moving. It had not begun to move. And it didn't shake, like it would in an earthquake. There was just one great _lurch _and a shadow of something that wasn't quite right visibly darkening the lights.

"Dementors?" Lily suggested quietly.

"No," Rose said. "Dementors are different. They don't make things move, they make them stop."

The intense sense of wrongness was similar, however. And the need to go somewhere else while they still could.

"We should go back now," Hugo said, holding his wand as though he actually knew how to use it.

"Yes, let's go," Rose said, but she kept looking around, and if she wasn't sure she wanted to leave with an unsolved mystery afoot. They did, however, leave. They left and rushed to keep up with their classmates, who were probably halfway to Hogwarts by now. _Maybe_, Lily thought, _I will end up swimming_. She broke into a run.

Fortunately, the boats hadn't left yet, so Lily and Hugo didn't actually have to swim. They hopped on a boat and sailed off towards Hogwarts. Lily wanted to just sit there and think about how she was about to go to Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, which she'd been looking forward to her whole life, but she couldn't stop thinking about what happened on the train.


	2. Chapter Two: Albus

Albus wasn't quite ready for his third year.

He wanted to go to Hogsmeade, sure, but there were all those new classes he had to choose from, and he couldn't help but stress out about it.

The Sorting was a good distraction.

"Ten galleons Lily's a Slytherin," Scorpius said, glancing at the first-years lined up in the Great Hall.

The Sorting Hat had just begun singing its song; the same lengthy, but entertaining explanation of the Houses.

"Are you crazy?" Albus whispered back. "Lily's so Gryffindor. Not, like, James Gryffindor, but still." He paused.

"Oh. Well. I've got ten extra galleons I don't know what to do with."

"Of course you do."

Albus glanced at the line of first years again, all looking nervous, avidly watching the Hat. It reminded him of his Sorting-a rather eventful one. People spent a solid month spilling the tea about a Potter who was put in Slytherin. But it made sense to Albus, at least. He was rather ambitious, like his namesake, and he preferred the cunning of his fellow Slytherins to the loud complaints of the Gryffindors. (It seemed that everything the Gryffindors did, they did more loudly than the rest of the Houses. He wasn't sure why).

Lily and Hugo stood in line with the rest of them. Hugo was saying something to the bloke behind him, while Lily was standing up as tall as possible, ready for her turn.

"Ten galleons Hugo'll be in Slytherin," Scorpius muttered.

"Scorpius," Albus said, mildly annoyed, "I don't have ten galleons lying around right now."

"How fortunate, because I'm willing to bet on terrible odds...I feel like I have to, after my dad gave me a whole speech about not hanging out with 'your lot'. Consider it an indirect insult. To my dad, not you."

"He said that?"

"Yeah."

"And that was the best comeback you came up with? Really?"

"Well, first of all, rude. Second-"

"Shhh," a Slytherin prefect, Peter Indreg, told them. "It's the Sorting, at least pretend to pay attention."

Fortunately, Albus didn't have to pretend. When he looked back over, it was Lily's turn. She glanced at the Hat with more curiosity than nerves, until the ancient mess fell over her eyes. There was a moment of near-silence, when Albus could almost hear the illusion of rain falling from the enchanted ceiling. Then the Hat cried, "GRYFFINDOR!" and all the Gryffindors applauded loudly. (They always cheered the loudest, too).

Hugo was now waiting to hear his House, glancing sideways at the Hat as though it might suddenly transfigure into a spider. (Ron had told them all the traumatizing story, of course).

Usually, the Hat didn't take very long to decide. There was a long moment of anticipation, and then it shouted out the student's House. So Albus was surprised when one long moment passed, and still the hat was silent. It just sat on Hugo's head, while Hugo looked increasingly nervous.

"What if he's in Slytherin?" Scorpius whispered.

Before Albus could reply, the Hat made up its mind. And it wasn't Slytherin.

It wasn't Gryffindor, either.

"RAVENCLAW!"

When the hat was pulled off Hugo's face, he looked utterly bewildered.

"What?" Albus said, out loud, not entirely on purpose.

"Ravenclaw?" Scorpius asked, thoughtful. "First a Potter in Slytherin, and now a Weasley in Ravenclaw. That's it. I think there's a hole in the space-time continuum."

"Must be," Albus said. "If anyone, you'd think it'd be Rose. Not Hugo. He's not a nerd."

"You sure?"

"Nope."

Albus glanced at where Ron was sitting. Like Harry, it was Ron's first year back at Hogwarts. After a few years helping out at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, he accepted Harry's offer of teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. It was fitting; Ron had had to do a lot of defending against the dark arts over the years.

Now he looked utterly astonished, and turned to Harry, muttering, "You know, I always thought the sorting hat was mental."

Even during the last few students' Sortings, whispers were flying left and right around the Great Hall. Albus frowned. That was just a part of being a Potter or Weasley now-whatever you did, people talked about. Once, Albus was late to class in the morning, and by dinner some were convinced he had been to the chamber of secrets. (Which was stupid, of course-the chamber was blocked off forever ago, even though the basilisk was dead.)

The last student was sorted (Hufflepuff), and it was finally time for dinner.

Albus turned to see Harry Potter standing in Dumbledore's old spot, looking as though he wasn't sure he should be there. There was a brief silence where everyone realised he was about to speak.

"Well," Harry said, "Welcome to Hogwarts. I'm Harry Potter, obviously-" a few students snickered "-Headmaster of Hogwarts. There's been a few other changes in staff." He waved a hand towards the staff table, where Ron was looking pleased at the attention. "Ron Weasley will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Bubbly Wanzabe will be teaching Potions."

Scorpius snorted. "Bubbly Wanzabe?"

"Taserface," Albus said, even though Scorpius, the pureblood, wouldn't understand the reference. Despite his efforts, he doubted Scorpius had seen more than one or two movies in his entire life.

Harry gave a quick, annoyed glance in James' direction, and Albus noticed James was making no effort to hide his laughter.

Albus glanced at the staff table. There was Ron, and Flitwick, and McGonagall (despite her threats to retire when James and Albus were of Hogwarts age), Hagrid, and the rest. And there was the strange face among the mix. Albus immediately understood why Harry hired him-he somehow, inexplicably reminded one of Dumbledore. He sat politely in his seat, noticing the students pretending they weren't laughing at his name with quiet amusement. He had glasses, too-not Dumbledore's characteristic half-moon pair, but as if he had taken that pair and another one and fit them together into round glasses. Albus couldn't quite decide what to think of this Bubbly Wanzabe.

Harry said a few more words about starting off the school year, etc, etc. And finally, they got to eat.

"Bubbly Wanzabe," Scorpius repeated again, the droning of all the others' voices mixing together keeping Bubbly from overhearing. "You don't hear that everyday."

"I'm surprised nobody's talking about Uncle Ron teaching a class," Albus replied thoughtfully. "He doesn't seem like the teaching type, does he?"

Scorpius shrugged. "Well, he's here, isn't he? Not that I would know. All Dad says about him is that once he came over and that was the day his wand went missing, and-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, there are so many things wrong with that, I don't even know where to begin…"

"Yeah, I'm just kidding. He never mentions your family." He hesitated. "Well. He does, but...hey, look, they've got mashed potatoes this year…"

Albus nodded absentmindedly, staring at the staff table. This could be an interesting year, he thought.

And he was 100% correct.

After the sorting was over and everyone ate, they all went to their common rooms. Albus and Scorpius headed down to the dungeons and went to bed early. (Albus was tired because Lily had woken everybody up and 5 am that morning, excited to go to Hogwarts.)

The first class they had in the morning was Potions, which was exciting, considering there was a new Potions Professor this year.

"I can't wait to meet Bubbly Wanzabe," Scorpius laughed as they sat down next to each other in the Potions classroom. "I mean, honestly, what kind of parent thinks it would be a good idea to name their kid Bubbly? That's completely mental."

"You're one to talk, mate," Albus replied. "Your name's Scorpius."

Scorpius looked as if he was going to reply, but stopped Professor Wanzabe when walked in.

He must have left and come back, because there were potions-newly made, still in cauldrons-all over the room. Some were finished, but most were not, simmering in various stages. Weirdly enough, they all seemed to be the same potion.

"Hello, students, I am Professor Wanzabe, your new Potions teacher," he introduced himself. The Slytherin class usually took a while to decide new teachers were worth listening to, but there was something about those piercing eyes that kept them quiet. "If you couldn't tell, today we're going to learn the Immunity Potion."

He waved a hand at the cauldrons around them. "I made the potion several times, because there are many, many ways it can go wrong, as you can see."

Albus could, indeed, see-one of them was spewing dense gas everywhere.

"If done right, however, it's invaluable. The Immunity Potion can protect you from the effect of nearly any poison for 48 hours after taking it. So, listen carefully-"

" YEAHHHH IMMA TAKE MY HORSE TO THE OLDTOWN ROAD I'M GONNA RIIIIDE TILL I CANT NO MORE!"

The lyrics echoed horribly in the near-silent dungeon classroom, making Lil Nas X's singing even louder.

Albus yanked his phone out of his pocket, fumbling with it in his rush. He'd gotten a call. From James.

There were many things Albus couldn't figure out-like how James had managed to sneak not only his own phone in, but Albus', too, and hide it in Albus's bag without him noticing. For another thing, electronics didn't work inside Hogwarts grounds-they went haywire. Over the years, James had snuck in a lot of electronics, and not even the flashlight had worked. So how had James hijacked that whole system for a prank?

Of course, that wasn't Albus's current most pressing concern.

"I GOT THE HORSES IN THE BACK!"

"I'm so sorry," Albus apologized, trying to decline James's call. He kept tapping the screen, but nothing was happening, so he tapped harder and harder. He never even put his ringer on, and he definitely didn't have it set to Old Town Road-so that must have been all James.

He could hear snickers around the room from the muggle-borns and half-bloods, and confused whispers from the pure-bloods.

Desperate, he pulled out his wand and directed whatever damaging spells came to mind at the phone. After all, he could always fix it later. And, as a wizard, he really didn't use his phone all that much anyway.

"Bombarda," Albus shouted at the thing. It exploded with a small bang on the stone floor, leaving a cloud of smoke and some wires, still throwing sparks. There was little else. Reparo could do a lot, but it couldn't fix that.

Fortunately, Old Town Road had stopped playing (although a few muggle borns were still singing it quietly in the back). The Pure-Bloods looked extremely confused. Most of them probably barely even knew what a phone was.

"Albus…" Wanzabe said slowly, and Albus could tell by his tone that he was a pureblood who had never heard Old Town Road before, "what...what was that?"

"I'm so sorry," Albus repeated, then added, "sir," because old people tend to like that. "James-he's my brother-he must have messed with my ringtone, I hate that song…"

He paused, noticing the blank stares all around the room. Scorpius was trying so hard not to laugh that he looked severely constipated.

"James," Albus muttered, furious. "It's just a Muggle song, Old Town Road…" he trailed off.

Bubbly was watching him, mildly amused, although it still seemed he didn't totally understand what had happened.

"Where was the music coming from?" Albus overheard someone saying behind him.

"Well, I think it's time to get back to our lesson," Wanzabe continued. "Everyone get out your potions books. Today, we'll be starting on page 1-which shouldn't be a surprise, as it is the first day."

Shoving the remains of his phone into his bag and hoping none of his books would catch on fire, Albus breathed a sigh of relief as he flipped through his potions book. James was going to pay for this.


	3. Chapter Three: James

James was having a great second day of school.

First of all, Lily was sorted into Gryffindor, which he had totally called, by the way. Then, all of his plans started coming together.

Every year before this one, everyone had repeatedly told James that electronics would not work at Hogwarts. And every year, James had brought them anyway. It wasn't the brightest, really-last year, half the camera roll of his iPad vanished-but he was convinced that, someday, it would work.

To clarify, he was not _just _hoping. James had gone through many spells in the process, all of which failed.

Until now.

Success had come in a very unlikely way. James' friend Kyle knew a guy whose cousin bought a wand from the new, ghetto wand shop, Hotomel's. Hotomel's was a far cry from Olivander's, but occasionally, people like Kyle's acquaintance's cousin bought wands there anyway.

The interesting thing about it was that it also sold spellbooks. And not just any spellbooks-the kind so rare that the store only had one or two copies of each, and a vague idea of who sold the books to them in the first place. The best part about these books was that a lot of them were written by half-bloods and for half-bloods, and had spells for muggle life, too.

So when Lily was buying all her first-year things, James and Kyle were at Hotomel's, buying the only two copies of _Technology and Wizardry: Spells for the Best of Both Worlds. _

After quickly skimming the pages, James found it-the spell that prevented magical influence on electronics.

It worked perfectly. James and Kyle took a selfie in the Gryffindor common room, and then told their half-blood and muggleborn classmates all about it. It was an instant hit.

Well, it was with everyone except Rose. "I've never heard of Hotomel's," she said, sounding wary.

James decided not to mention that was because it was actually in Knockturn Alley. Was it probably sketchy? Well, maybe, yeah. But _Technology and Wizardry_ was just a normal book-in fact, there was an entire chapter on using a wand as a television remote. So, really, it was fine.

And of course, the prank on Albus was priceless.

James couldn't wait to see Albus's face. So, when his last class finished (it was Charms, and Flitwick had gone on way too long), he headed for the dungeons.

James knew where the Slytherin common room was, because he once he got _very _lost looking for the one bathroom in the dungeons on the way to potions class. (Honestly, why was their only bathroom down there?)

Now he headed over.

"Password?"

Standing tall in his obviously Gryffindor robes, James just announced, "My dad's Harry Potter."

"You're not a Slytherin," the portrait informed him.

"I'm aware, thanks," James replied. "Okay...um...green? Snakes? Purebloods? Snobs? Giant squid?" Unsurprisingly, none of the answers were right.

"James, what are you doing?"

James jumped, startled, and saw Scorpius and Albus standing behind him. Well, here was Albus, anyway.

"Hey," James said. "Y'know, I never saw you as an old town road kind of person, Al. And that song's _old _now, too…" he shook his head. "I must say, I'm disappointed."

"Ha, ha," Albus replied flatly. "I was in the middle of Potions class, James. Bubbly Whatshisname must hate me now."

James laughed.

"It's not funny."

"It's kind of funny," Scorpius said, but took it back after Albus's stern look.

"_Anyway_," James said, "So I was th-"

He was cut off by a scream down the hall.

A Slytherin girl James didn't know ran down the hall, looking panicked. "Something-something just attacked Ella Longbottom!"

James whipped out his wand. He was always prepared to fight-his dad was Harry Potter. "What was it?"

"Where? What happened?" Albus.

"Over there-I think Professor Wanzabe heard, though," she said, pointing.

James ran over immediately. He was an "I Have a Plan: Attack" kind of person, and saw nothing wrong with that. When turned down a couple halls, he saw what happened.

Turns out, Wanzabe _had _heard, as well as half the Hufflepuff Potions class, who Wanzabe was repeatedly telling to stand back. Between all the people, James caught a glimpse of Ella-she looked rather stiff.

"James," Albus said, just catching up. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Just after you left, something…" he glanced at Scorpius, as if for confirmation.

"Yeah," Scorpius agreed, to whatever it was. "It sounded like Parseltongue."

From over near Ella, a Hufflepuff asked, "what's wrong with her?"

"Don't worry, she'll be all right shortly," Wanzabe said. He spoke calmly, like always, but not with the usual hint of humor. "She's just Petrified."

James whipped around, facing Scorpius and Albus. They all were thinking the same question.

"Do you think…?"

"No!"

"But…"

"Is there a _new _basilisk?"

It didn't make sense. Where would it even stay, now that the Chamber was blocked off? And where had it come from? Basilisks didn't just emerge from the dust in empty chambers, after all.

"Well, Al, I'm glad you're in Slytherin," James said.

"James," Albus said, annoyed. "You know I can't speak Parseltongue."

"Oh. Nevermind."

After lots of discussion that got them nowhere, Albus and Scorpius decided to talk to Harry, and James decided that afterwards, they might have to kill the basilisk themselves.

First, they went to Harry Potter.

Before the year even began, James knew the password to get in the Headmaster's office. That was, of course, because Harry was his dad.

Now, he didn't hesitate to tell the Griffin blocking the staircase (hehe, griffin door…) "chocolate frog". The threesome ran up to the office.

The large office was still mostly empty. It was, after all, large, and Harry hadn't had the time to fill it with much of anything yet. "Hey, Dad," James said.

He noticed Scorpius looked a bit uncomfortable.

"Hey," Harry said. He had been unpacking more of his things, but paused and sat down. "What's going on?"

"So, um." James decided to just get to the point. "I think there might be a basilisk in the school again. Because, Ella-you know, Ella Longbottom-she got petrified, and Albus and Scorpius think they heard Parseltongue."

"Ella got petrified?" Harry asked, startled. "When?"

"A couple minutes ago, in the dungeons," Albus offered. "Professor Wandalee-" Harry ignored this mispronunciation "-brought her to the hospital wing."

"Did she have a mirror?" Harry asked. "Or water, or a camera, or something?"

"She wasn't dead, so she must have," James said.

"It could be something else," Harry said. "It's unlikely there's another baslislik. So is there any way she could have seen it indirectly?"

James thought for a moment, then shrugged. "I don't know, there was a whole crowd around her...I couldn't really see…"

Harry nodded. "Neville already has mandrakes ready, so she'll be fine." He paused. "If you hear anything else that sounds like parseltongue-actually sounds like it, though-let me know. I don't want another Chamber of Secrets incident."

"Yeah, yeah," James agreed, nodding.

Albus and Scorpius nodded, too.

Once again, Hogwarts could be in danger.


End file.
